Faithful Catholic or modern-day pharisee? Sometimes I might be a bit of both.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Let the Children Come to Me—RCIA Retreat 2017

Gina and I spent the day with our catechumens and candidates today, After the first of three talks, we had exposition and benediction. Here's my homily from that event.

Mark 10:13–16

Gina and I
have five grandchildren, and with most of them, I have gone through the stage
in which it is very popular for them to come and cling to me and hang on me,
and just otherwise want to be around me. I'm good with that for a while, but it
also happens that often the times that they can come to visit are the very
times when I have limited free time to get various things done. So at a certain
point, I'm not as accessible or generous as I'd like to be. I feel badly for admitting
that, but it's simply the truth. Perhaps when I retire, I'll be less stingy
with my time. I hope that is the case.

But I'm
always charmed to see young fathers with their toddlers in public, particularly
at parks where there is so much to explore and so many new things to encounter.
I do remember those times when my daughter was just beginning to verbalize, and
she'd toddle up holding something in her hand and hand it to me and say
something unintelligible but with obvious inflection: "What is this?"
or "This is such and such" or even "Wow, this is amazing."
If you have children, I know you know what I mean. This is one of those great
moments in parenting.

That's how I
envision God in the Garden of Eden with Adam after He formed him from the dust
of the ground and breathed life into him. After placing Him, His new offspring,
into the garden, He realizes that man needs helpers, so He creates animals, and
brings each one of them to man to name. I can see the Father presenting to his
human son each animal, and the man looking each in the face and uttering
something that would be as incomprehensible to us as those babblings of our own
children. And I think of how God delights in it and gets such a kick out of man
at his important task of naming the animals.

God the
Father is a much better papa than I am. Thank goodness I have His example to
follow.

I see the
same dynamic in the reading this morning. The apostles and I have a lot in
common. We see the children not through the eyes of the Father or our loving
savior, but through our own concerns—the daily anxieties and cares that prevent
us from seeing what truly matters. Jesus will have none of it. "Let the
children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these."

The Kingdom
of God belongs to those who flock to Jesus, who reach for Him and wish to be
held by Him. And He picks them up and blesses each of them. That's the
generosity of spirit that I wish I had. I guess I'm happy that I wish I had it.
That's a start.

Anyway, look
at what Jesus tells his disciples: "Whoever does not accept the Kingdom of
God like a child will not enter into it." Elsewhere it says, "Unless
you turn and become like children, you'll not enter the kingdom." Now
notice that the acceptance is a two-way street. Jesus is receptive to the
children, and the children are eager to be with Jesus. It begins with Jesus'
openness to the children, but the children are likewise completely open to
Jesus.

That is our
goal. I would like to be as generous as Jesus with my grandchildren, but maybe
the way that I begin is by being completely open to Jesus to start. After all,
all of the gifts we have come from God. To have the gift to give, we must first
receive it from the giver of all gifts. So for me to be able to give that gift
of generous, gratuitous love to my grandchildren, I have to be completely open
to God's love for me. I have to become a child in His presence. Or perhaps more
accurately, I have to recognize that I am a child in His eyes and respond
accordingly.

Beyond that,
we need to understand what this passage does and does not say. It is not
telling us to believe as children believe. That would be completely
inappropriate for adults. We should believe with an adult faith and
understanding of God—not a faith of mindless, blind obedience, but faith
seeking understanding. But what the children have and what we often luck is complete
trust. While we may not always understand, we must always remember that God
is a God of love who does not aim to deceive us but desires to embrace us. Let
us reach out to Him with that same child-like trust in His love.

Wha?

I am a cradle Catholic who drifted away in my teens and wandered. My search
for truth led me to study comparative religion, New Age nonsense, and
philosophy. After 20 years as an agnostic, I came back to a faith that I never
really knew, but which I learn and love more daily. My restless heart now only
wishes to rest in Him. I have masters degrees in English and theology, black
belts in Shotokan karate (Ohshima) and Shaolin-Do kung fu, and classical
training in music that I've all but forgotten. I am a deacon for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise. This is a personal blog and does not represent the official views of my parish or diocese.

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Coalition for Clarity

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